{"id":494842,"date":"2025-10-13T00:40:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/494842\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T00:40:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:40:17","slug":"andrea-radrizzani-names-two-managers-leeds-united-tried-to-hire-after-sacking-jesse-marsch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/494842\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrea Radrizzani names two managers Leeds United tried to hire after sacking Jesse Marsch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The final season of Andrea Radrizzani\u2019s tenure as Leeds United was a mess. The Italian had publicly spoken of his dreams to reach Europe, but in February 2021, he decided to sack Marcelo Bielsa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From that point on, he could not have got much more wrong. The hiring of Jesse Marsch<\/a> proved to be a catastrophically bad decision and by the time Leeds<\/a> plucked up the courage to sack him, it was too late.<\/p>\n

A three-game interim period under Michael Skubala did not help proceedings either, and that was not because of Skubala. Any incoming manager felt there was not enough time to turn the tide at Leeds.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Leeds had to settle with the hiring of Javi Gracia, and after a good start the inevitable became reality. A 5-1 loss at Elland Road<\/a> against Crystal Palace led Leeds to Sam Allardyce, and then relegation.<\/p>\n

\"AndreaPhoto by Laurence Griffiths\/Getty ImagesAndrea Radrizzani claims Leeds could have hired Unai Emery<\/p>\n

After Marsch\u2019s sacking, Leeds pushed hard for now-Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola<\/a> and Liverpool boss Arne Slot<\/a>. Neither had moved to England and were both still in charge of Vallecano and Feyenoord.<\/p>\n

They chose to remain where they were after talks. But Radrizzani<\/a> has now told The Mail<\/a> that Leeds could have hired now-Villa boss Unai Emery, or former Wolves and West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of time trying to find someone with a similar style of play as Marcelo. I regret that we didn\u2019t change sooner. Jesse is a good coach but I could see signs of frustration and misunderstanding.<\/p>\n

\"UnaiPhoto by David S. Bustamante\/Soccrates\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have had Unai Emery or Julen Lopetegui but we missed that window. Then we tried with Arne Slot and Andoni Iraola after the World Cup but it was too late. It was my responsibility,\u201d Radrizzani said.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

Radrizzani\u2019s mistake with Jesse Marsch came three months prior<\/p>\n

Leeds had made a big sprint off the start line in 2022-23. A win against Wolves on the opening day and a 3-0 hammering of Chelsea, which saw Brenden Aaronson tackle Edouard Mendy and tap the ball home.<\/p>\n

But Leeds fell off dramatically, and Marsch\u2019s tactics and signings came under the microscope. Prior to the 2022 World Cup, Leeds beat Liverpool at Anfield and then 4-3 against Bournemouth. He was kept on.<\/p>\n

\"NewPhoto by Andrew Powell\/Liverpool FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sacking Marsch and making the brave decision to get rid of the American despite the two wins would have allowed managers to come in, have time to work, and then, the January window. But Leeds held on.<\/p>\n

Had Leeds opted to oust Marsch before the World Cup break, Leeds might have just had a chance of survival with the right appointment. It is likely Emery and Lopetegui were options at that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final season of Andrea Radrizzani\u2019s tenure as Leeds United was a mess. The Italian had publicly spoken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[137149,748,393,4884,104391,33406,1860,16,6543,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-494842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-andrea-radrizzani","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-jesse-marsch","13":"tag-julen-lopetegui","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-unai-emery","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115364078389977296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}